Don't Screw Up
by Boredette
Summary: Sam wasn't expecting to go to prom and now that he's here the last thing he wants to do is screw it up. Especially because he could end up screwing up someone else's prom too. Fluffy Samcedes one-shot. Contains PQ spoilers!


Sam had successfully done it. He had asked a girl to dance with him at prom and nothing bad had happened. It had been pretty easy too. She was sitting there watching everyone else dance and all he could think about was that there was a beautiful girl who wasn't on the dance floor. He told her that he honestly thought she was beautiful, asked her to dance and she said yes. No problems.

He didn't want to tempt fate though. For reasons he didn't completely understand yet, he didn't want to screw things up with Mercedes. He hadn't so far, but the night was still young and this was only his first dance. His mom had given him a pretty decent crash-course on dancing and after hours of twirling her and his little sister around the room, he was pretty confident he couldn't ruin the evening by tramping on her toes.

Still, there was plenty more that could go wrong and the idea terrified him. Instead of thinking about what could go wrong, he took his mother's advice and concentrated on trying to remember every single detail of the night. Concentrating really hard on only what he was experiencing at that moment, he began to make his memories.

The first thing he noticed was how amazing Mercedes smelled. While he always imagined her with a kind of exotic smell to go with the bold way she dressed, the scent she was wearing smelled of daisies and fresh berries. It was so simple and so beautiful. He realised how often he was thinking that word. Maybe he should tell her again? No, it would be weird since he had only said that about a minute ago. He suddenly realised that he was thinking again, and he was convinced that that would be the quickest way to guarantee a screw-up.

Instead, he concentrated on how Mercedes' head was resting contentedly on his chest and how easy it was for him to rest his head on top of hers. She was the perfect height. He realised that at her height she could probably feel every freaked-out beat of his heart. This thought only made his heart race faster and he was pretty sure that if he didn't distract himself, he was going to have an early-onset heart attack. He pulled his thoughts away from his crazy circulatory system and tried to focus on the song.

The words weren't that happy and didn't fit how he felt at all, but the melody was beautiful and Rachel sang so well that it didn't matter. He heard Mercedes give off what could only be an accidental sigh of happiness. Sam couldn't help himself and he began to laugh, his chest heaving up and down. Mercedes looked curiously up at him.

"Aw, c'mon, there's no way that I'm that good of a dancer," said Sam, still laughing. Mercedes laughed too and soon the two of them were laughing too hard to carry on dancing. The song ended shortly afterwards anyway. He escorted her back to the table and pulled out her chair for her.

"Impressive, Mr Evans," said Mercedes, still laughing though they had both forgotten what they were even laughing about in the first place. After a few more minutes of senseless laughter they managed to calm down enough to start having a normal conversation.

"I can't believe I was going to miss this," said Mercedes looking above her at the cheap paper streamers.

"I'm the same. Thank God you saved me," said Sam, grinning.

"It was Rachel's idea," said Mercedes, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, self-consciously.

"Well maybe, but it was also her idea to invite Jesse St. Jerk. Imagine if you hadn't been in on the plan. I would have been on my own completely bored."

Mercedes smiled and downed her punch nervously. Sam couldn't help but smile. He couldn't understand why Mercedes had never had a boyfriend. Anyone could see how beautiful she was and she had an amazing personality. A little scary at times, but he had never seen her sass someone who didn't deserve it.

"So, why can't you get a boyfriend?" Sam asked, before thinking it through. He saw Mercedes' face drop from a shy smile to a look as if he had slapped her through the face. Without saying anything, she stood up and made her way gracefully out of the auditorium.

"You know, Sam, that was really stupid," said Kurt sitting down in the now empty seat next to him.

"What did I say? I'm confused. God, I knew I was going to screw things up," said Sam, absolutely furious with himself.

"Okay, firstly, you never ask why a girl can't get a boyfriend. It's her business. Just pretend that she has no problems in that department until she admits something along those lines to you," said Kurt, rolling his eyes at how inexperienced Sam really was. "Secondly, I know where she'll be. Her favourite place to go when she's upset at school is the auditorium. Not to sing, but just to sit and be on her own. In about two minutes you're going to go to the auditorium, tell her you've been looking for her everywhere and then you're going to make sure she has the best damn prom any girl could ever ask for, because she deserves it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, perfectly," said Sam, more grateful than ever that he knew Kurt at that moment.

"Good," said Kurt. They had sat in silence for about thirty seconds when Sam asked, "Can I leave now?"

"Fine, but only if you walk slowly and pretend to be out of breath when you're there," said Kurt rolling his eyes.

"Thanks Kurt," said Sam punching him on the shoulder gratefully.

"Anytime."

Sam took Kurt's advice and walked slowly through the corridors, making his way to the auditorium. When he got there, he made sure that he sounded as if he had been running everywhere looking for him. He saw her sitting four rows away from the stage and immediately called out "Mercedes (pant) is that you (pant)? I've been looking everywhere (pant) for you (pant)."

"Sam, cut the crap. I know that Kurt told you where I would be," said Mercedes. Sam decided it was time to be genuine, so he stopped his (probably horrible) acting and went to join Mercedes. He could see that she had been crying a little and he immediately handed her a Kleenex.

"Thank you," she said, but the tears had begun to fall again.

"Oh God, Mercedes, I'm so sorry," said Sam. "I never meant to say anything like that. I really didn't want to hurt you."

Mercedes was quiet for a few moments.

"I think I'm invisible to boys," she admitted. "I don't mind it being just me and my music, but when it counts I don't think they see me."

"I see you," said Sam, seriously. And without thinking, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Mercedes'. It was a simple kiss, but it said what he needed it to. He pulled away and smiled at her stunned expression.

"Look, you know how things are with me at the moment. I don't have anything to offer you but voluntary babysitting dates, and I know that's not what every girl wants to hear. But I really like you Mercedes Jones and if you could find it in your heart to make a poor boy a happy boy, I'd be forever grateful."

Mercedes grinned. "So what time do we start torturing them?"

Sam grinned and pulled Mercedes into a tight hug. Suddenly, Mercedes pushed him away. He gave her what he hoped was a puzzled look and not the hurt one he wanted to give her.

"Boy, did you just quote _Avatar_ at me?" she asked, a mock-angry expression on her face.

"I can say it in Na'vi too," he grinned. She rolled her eyes and he took that as his cue to escort her back to her prom.

Yes, he had screwed up, but the screw-up had turned out to make things even better. So maybe he wasn't as clueless as he thought he was. And even if he was, he was now clueless with a girl, so that had to count for something?

Right?

**A/N: Okay, so I'm totally and completely in love with this pairing at the moment, mostly because I like to live vicariously through Mercedes and Sam is amazing. But I was also shocked at how few Samcedes fics there were. So this is to bulk it up a little. :)**

**Thank you for reading! x**


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